The purpose of the index is to understand how business users perceive, plan for and utilize four key technologies: cloud, mobility, security and big data. Dell released the first wave of its results this week and will be publishing several additional chapters throughout 2016. You can download Chapter 1 of the study here (PDF, no opt-in, 18 pp.).

Key take-aways from the study include the following:

Orchestrating big data, cloud and mobility strategies leads to 53% greater growth than peers not adopting these technologies. Midmarket organizations adopting big data alone have the potential to grow 50% more than comparable organizations. Effective use of Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) mobility strategies has the potential to increase growth by 53% over laggards or late adopters..

73% of North American organizations believe the volume and complexity of their data requires big data analytics apps and tools. This is up from 54% in 2014, indicating midmarket organizations are concentrating on how to get more value from the massive data stores many have accumulated. This same group of organizations believe they are getting more value out of big data this year (69%) compared to last year (64%). Top outcomes of using big data include better targeting of marketing efforts (41%), optimization of ad spending (37%), and optimization of social media marketing (37%).

54% of an organization’s security budget is invested in security plans versus reacting to threats.Dell & TNS Research discovered that midmarket organizations both in North America and Western Europe are relying on security to enable new devices or drive competitive advantage. In North America, taking a more strategic approach to security has increased from 25% in 2014 to 35% today. In Western Europe, the percentage of companies taking a more strategic view of security has increased from 26% in 2014 to 30% this year.

IT infrastructure costs to support big data initiatives (29%) and costs related to securing the data (28%) are the two greatest barriers to big data adoption. For cloud adoption, costs and security are the two biggest barriers in midmarket organizations as is shown in the graphic below.

Cloud use by midmarket companies in France increased 12% in the last twelve months, leading all nations in the survey. Of the 11 countries surveyed, France had the greatest increase in cloud adoption within midmarket companies. French businesses increased their adoption of cloud applications and platforms from 70% in 2014 to 82% in 2015.